Prep baseball: Wounded Warrior leads Wasilla to win

May 20, 2007

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - The home run trot is a fairly common site in baseball, but it's rare to see the trot for the triple.

Rare, but not impossible.

Wasilla senior Carl Brent tripled and drove in two runs to spark Wasilla's 12-2 win over Soldotna at Carl Fritzler Field in Wasilla on Friday.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, with the Warriors holding a 5-2 lead, Brent drove a high and deep ball to left field. As soon as the ball left his bat Brent - who is nursing a hamstring injury he suffered last week - steadily made his way around first base.

&#8220I thought he had it,” Brent said of Soldotna left fielder Stan Westerman.

But the ball carried over Westerman's head and to the left field fence.

&#8220I thought it was a regular pop up, plus the wind was blowing in,” Brent said. &#8220I was trotting because I thought it was going to be out.”

But once Brent saw the ball lying on the ground as he headed to second base, he went for third.

&#8220Once I saw the ball still wasn't coming, I figured I might as well hustle a little bit,” Brent said. &#8220I kicked it as much as I could.”

Brent had been anchoring the infield at shortstop, but Wasilla head coach Gene Sandone said the Warriors put the versatile senior behind the plate to take advantage of high school baseball's courtesy runner rule. On the prep diamond, a team can insert a pinch runner for their catcher at anytime, and the catcher can still continue in the game.

Brent finished 2-for-3 and drove in two runs in the win. He posted a run-scoring double in the fifth.

Brent also had two hits and drove in three runs in a 15-3 win over Valdez on Saturday.

&#8220We've been just waiting for him to explode,” Sandone said of Brent.

Behind the plate, Brent turned a key double play to help the Warriors get out of a bases loaded situation.

In the top of the fourth, Wasilla held a three-run lead, but the Stars managed to lead the bases with just one out.

The next man at the plate, Soldotna's Richie Hatt bounced a all right in front of the home. Brent fielded the ball, stepped on the plate and threw to first to complete the double play and allow the Warriors to get out of the inning.

&#8220We had two big double plays tonight and Carl was involved in both,” Sandone said.

Wasilla broke the game open with four runs in the fourth.

Mike Shaw singled to start the inning, and later scored on Brent's triple.

Later in the inning, the aggressive baserunning of Tommy Rodamer helped the Warriors push another across the plate.

After Soldotna relief pitcher Mike Griffen walked Rodamer, the Wasilla freshman hustled around first base toward second. When Soldotna tried to get Rodamer at second, Kenny McClellan - the Warriors' man on third - hustled toward home and scored.

&#8220That's a real heads-up play by Tommy,” Brent said.

McClellan and Rodamer each scored twice in the win. Shaw and Justin Sage also scored twice. Eight different players scored, and four drove in runs.

Senior Danny Lyles pitched three innings to earn the win. He allowed five hits and two earned runs.

Freshman Dusty Wisdom held the Stars without a run or a hit in two strong innings of relief. He also fanned a pair of hitters.

&#8220He's got really good placement,” Brent said of Wisdom. &#8220I put up my mitt, and he hits it dead-on every time.”

Sandone was also pleased with the play of a young infield. He started two freshman and two sophomores in the infield.

&#8220We only started two seniors, and they were our battery,” Sandone said, referring to Brent, his catcher, and Lyles, his pitcher.

Sandone specifically noted the play of third baseman Jared Christenson-Vavalis, a player he called up from the junior varsity team.

Soldotna hit the diamond for just the third time in program history. The first-year squad dropped a 7-5 decision to Valdez earlier in the day.

Despite the winless record, coach Ray Waters is pleased with the efforts of his players.

&#8220I can't say anything bad about them,” Waters said.

Soldotna has 14 players on the squad. Waters said he had 12 suit up for Friday's games.

Justice Elson earned the start for Soldotna and pitched three innings.

Mike Griffen and Mike Eskuw each stood in for an inning of relief.

Elson, Westerman, Hatt, Larsen Kohler and Mike Ragsdale each grabbed hits for the Stars.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Wasilla 12, Soldotna 2

Soldotna

name ab r h bi

Elson 2 1 1 0

Griffen 1 0 0 0

Westerman 2 0 1 0

Hatt 2 0 1 1

Kohler 3 0 1 0

Eskuw 2 0 0 0

Stilchin 2 1 0 0

Steger 2 0 0 0

Ragsdale 1 0 1 0

Totals 17 2 5 1

Wasilla

Name ab r h rbi

Bydlon 3 0 1 0

S. Graber 1 1 1 0

Cowgill 2 0 0 1

—Shaw 2 2 1 0

—Chr-Vavalls 1 0 0 0

Brent 3 0 2 2

—J. Sage 0 2 0 0

Ostrom 1 1 0 1

—Washington 0 1 0 0

McClellan 3 2 2 1

Rodamer 2 2 1 0

Lyles 0 1 0 0

—Wisdom 1 0 0 0

Newcomb 2 0 1 1

Totals 21 12 9 7

Soldotna 110 000 - 2

Wasilla 112 44x - 12

E - Soldotna 6, Wasilla 1. LOB - Soldotna 8, Wasilla 8. 2B - Brent. HR - none. SB - Lyles 4, McLellan 3, Rodamer 2, Ostrom, E. Graber, Elson, Westerman, Stilchin CS - none.

Wasilla IP H R ER BB SO

Lyles 3 5 2 2 5 1

Wisdom 2 0 0 0 0 2

Soldotna IP H R ER BB SO

Elson 3 8 4 3 4 2

Griffen 1 2 4 3 1 0

Eskew 1 2 4 4 2 0

HBP - Brent by Elson. WP - Lyles, Elson.

Wasilla 15, Valdez 3

WASILLA - Carl Brent was the big story again Saturday against Valdez, driving in three runs at the plate and pitching five innings of two-hit ball to help the Warriors to a 15-3 win.

Using a steady diet of off-speed pitches to keep the Valdez hitters off balance, Brent cruised through the game with ease. The senior right hander struck out five batters, walked five and didn't give up an earned run for the second consecutive outing.

Brent's only real rough patch came during the fifth inning, when the first two Valdez hitters reached base and later scored.

Wasilla led just 2-1 after heading into the bottom of the fourth inning before breaking the game open with six consecutive runs. Center fielder Danny Lyles had two hits in the inning, one in which ten Warrior hitters reached base safely.

Wasilla wrapped things up in the fifth inning, again scoring with their first six hitters to finish off the Bucs.

Bydlon, Brent and Lyles all finished with two hits on the game. All nine Wasilla starters scored runs, including two each by Bydlon, Brent, Lyles, first baseman Mike Shaw, second baseman Cory Cowgill and shortstop Kenny McLellan.

Valdez didn't help themselves in the field, committing seven errors.

Valdez earned a 7-5 win over Soldotna on Saturday in

Wasilla.

WASILLA 15, VALDEZ 3 (5 Inn.)

VALDEZ

name ab r h bi

Caples cf 3 1 1 0

Koszanek 2b 1 1 0 0

Goudreau rf, p 2 0 0 1

Wilson ss 3 0 0 0

N.Rogers c 1 0 1 0

J.Rogers p,3b 3 1 0 0

Starbuck 1b 1 0 0 0

Tucker 3b 2 0 0 0

Wells lf 2 0 0 0

Hedberg cf 0 0 0 0

Totalsš 18 3 2 1

WASILLA

Name ab r h bi

Bydlon c 4 2 2 1

Shaw 1b2 2 0 0

Cowgill 2b 3 2 0 0

Brent p 3 0 2 3

Washington rf 2 1 1 0

Ostrom lf 3 1 1 1

McLellan ss 4 2 0 0

Rodamer dh 2 1 1 1

Lyles cf 4 2 2 1

Ch-Vavalis 3b 1 0 0 0

S.Graber ph 1 1 0 1

Sage pr 0 1 0 0

Totals 29 15 9 8

VALDEZ 000 12 - 3

WASILLA 101 76 - 15

E - Wasilla 2, Valdez 7. LOB - Wasilla 6, Valdez 8. SB - Rodamer, Bydlon, Caples, J.Rogers. CS - Shaw.

VALDEZ IP H R ER BB SO

J.Rogers L 4 7 9 2 2 4

Goudreau .2 2 6 0 1 1

WASILLA

Brent W 5 2 3 0 5 5

HBP - Rodamer by Rogers, Brent by Rogers, Washington by Rogers, Cowgill by Goudreau, N.Rogers by Brent. WP - J.Rogers (2), Brent (2). Balk - Brent.